The Roads To War And Economic Collapseby Dr. Paul Craig Roberts24-11-2011

November 23, 2011: The day before the Thanksgiving holiday brought three extraordinary news items. One was the report on the Republican presidential campaign debate. One was the Russian President’s statement about his country’s response to Washington’s missile bases surrounding his country. And one was the failure of a German government bond auction.

As the presstitute media will not inform us of what any of this means, let me try.

With the exception of Ron Paul, the only candidate in either party qualified to be the president of the US, the rest of the Republican candidates are even worse than Obama, a president who had the country behind him but sold out the American people to special interests.

No newly elected president in memory, neither John F. Kennedy nor Ronald Reagan, had the extraordinary response to his election as Barack Obama. A record-breaking number of people braved the cold to witness his swearing in ceremony. The mall was filled for miles distant from the Capitol with Americans who could not see the ceremony except as televised on giant screens.

Obama had convinced the electorate that he would end the wars, stop the violation of law by the US government, end the regime of illegal torture, close the torture prison of Guantanamo, and attend to the real needs of the American people rather than stuff the pockets of the military/security complex with taxpayers’ money.

Once in office, Obama renewed and extended the Bush/Cheney/neoconservative wars.

He validated the Bush regime’s assaults on the US Constitution. He left Wall Street in charge of US economic policy, he absolved the Bush regime of its crimes, and he assigned to the American people the financial cost necessary to preserve the economic welfare of the mega-rich.

One would think such a totally failed president would be easy to defeat. Given an historic opportunity, the Republican Party has put before the electorate the most amazingly stupid and vile collection of prospects, with the exception of Ron Paul who does not have the party’s support, that Americans have ever seen.

Thomas Rustici talks to Alasdair Macleod about the Fed and Gold (Video)

Thomas Rustici, Professor at George Mason University, and Alasdair Macleod, of the GoldMoney Foundation, talk about the European sovereign debt crisis and how it foreshadows similar problems in the USA. A central bank is a monopolistic, central planning agency, with all the implications that this has for the quality of its product.

They talk about monetary policy and its flaws. They talk about labour market rigidity and “sticky wages” as deliberate policy. They talk about the European Union and how it has fallen prey to regulatory capture and has morphed from a free market into a mercantilist structure controlled by special interests. They talk about the cost of regulation and how the cost is borne by employees and consumers, not companies, which merely collect.CONTINUE FOR VIDEO: [link to www.goldmoney.com]

On November 25, two days after a failed German government bond auction in which Germany was unable to sell 35% of its offerings of 10-year bonds, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Germany might retreat from its demands that the private banks that hold the troubled sovereign debt from Greece, Italy, and Spain must accept part of the cost of their bailout by writing off some of the debt. The private banks want to avoid any losses either by forcing the Greek, Italian, and Spanish governments to make good on the bonds by imposing extreme austerity on their citizens, or by having the European Central Bank print euros with which to buy the sovereign debt from the private banks. Printing money to make good on debt is contrary to the ECB’s charter and especially frightens Germans, because of the Weimar experience with hyperinflation.

Obviously, the German government got the message from the orchestrated failed bond auction. As I wrote at the time, there is no reason for Germany, with its relatively low debt to GDP ratio compared to the troubled countries, not to be able to sell its bonds.

If Germany’s creditworthiness is in doubt, how can Germany be expected to bail out other countries? Evidence that Germany’s failed bond auction was orchestrated is provided by troubled Italy’s successful bond auction two days later.

Strange, isn’t it. Italy, the largest EU country that requires a bailout of its debt, can still sell its bonds, but Germany, which requires no bailout and which is expected to bear a disproportionate cost of Italy’s, Greece’s and Spain’s bailout, could not sell its bonds.

In my opinion, the failed German bond auction was orchestrated by the US Treasury, by the European Central Bank and EU authorities, and by the private banks that own the troubled sovereign debt.

Bilderberg Leader Mario Monti Takes Over Italy in 'Coup'by Alex NewmanItaly’s new Prime Minister Mario Monti (with wife at left), who rose to power in what critics called a “coup d’etat,” is a prominent member of the world elite in the truest sense of the term. In fact, he is a leader in at least two of the most influential cabals in existence today: the secretive Bilderberg Group and David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission.

Nicknamed “Super Mario,” Monti is also an “international advisor” to the infamous Goldman Sachs, one of the most powerful financial firms in the world. Critics refer to the giant bank as the “Vampire Squid” after a journalist famously used the term in a hit piece. But its tentacles truly do reach into the highest levels of governments worldwide.

Italy’s Political CrisisFollowing the Italian government’s descent into the economic abyss that saw bond yields soar to record highs as the euro-zone began to come apart at the seams, ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi decided to step down. And late last week, President Giorgio Napolitano asked Monti to form a new government.

On November 16, the new Prime Minister — who will also serve as Italy’s “Economy Minister” — announced that he was appointing an array of bankers, technocrats, and lawyers to lead the emerging government. After unveiling proposed reforms later this week Monti and his unelected team will face Parliament in a confidence vote.

Some of the nation’s political parties have already said they support the new leadership. But others, including loyal members of Berlusconi’s party, complained of a “coup d’etat” engineered by bankers and the European Union.

“The truth is that there was a big operation, an ‘Italian Job,’ to get Berlusconi out of the way by forcing him to resign,” complained former Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, comparing Berlusconi’s ouster to the movie of that same name made in1969 and remade in 2003. While the ex-Prime Minister was not technically forced to resign, he said it was an act of “responsibility.”

BULLSHIT! There is no such thing as corporate income taxes. That is because companies merely pass their tax "expense" onto their customers/consumers.

Quoting: SmartestOne

Right on. Most people can't, and will never grasp this concept. Taxing the rich and corporations will solve nothing as this hardship will be passed on to the working class in the form of unemployment and high prices. The wealthy are not the problem infact they are some of the more vital and responsible parts of our functioning economy. If all the rich people in the world were to hand over there wealth to the working class, the world would be a much worse place. Inflation would sky rocket with a slew of irresponsible spending. In the end the average person would have no more purchasing power than they do today, they would just have more money.

BULLSHIT! There is no such thing as corporate income taxes. That is because companies merely pass their tax "expense" onto their customers/consumers.

Quoting: SmartestOne

Right on. Most people can't, and will never grasp this concept. Taxing the rich and corporations will solve nothing as this hardship will be passed on to the working class in the form of unemployment and high prices. The wealthy are not the problem infact they are some of the more vital and responsible parts of our functioning economy. If all the rich people in the world were to hand over there wealth to the working class, the world would be a much worse place. Inflation would sky rocket with a slew of irresponsible spending. In the end the average person would have no more purchasing power than they do today, they would just have more money.

Totally disagree with him on global warming (it should be called pollution, not global warming. Pollution is more of a problem than warming because it's local not global, and due to variations in convection, absorption, retention and conduction of heat radiation), his peak oil theory is disputable too.

Roxy, it's obvious that you spend a lot of time researching and analyzing our current global economic mess and it's amazing of you to share your findings and insights...I've learned a ton from this thread alone. Keep up the good work!

Roxy, it's obvious that you spend a lot of time researching and analyzing our current global economic mess and it's amazing of you to share your findings and insights...I've learned a ton from this thread alone. Keep up the good work!

There was, in time gone by, a cap on the SS "Contribution" that the government extorted from employers and employees. No more. No longer is there any "cap" on the amount at now 16.5% (if it's not there it will be next year) that you must, by law, contribute to SS.

I earned in excess of $300k each year for the last twelve or fifteen years of my working life. And yes, I paid in at those rates much of that time. Eventually I incorporated my professional services and worked as an independent contractor, although I reserved the right to "buy in" to the company health plans, and other group coverages.

My overall contribution to Social Security (coupled with the employer's portion of course) totaled in excess of a million dollars. You tell me at the "family maximum" how much of that I'll ever see again? There has always been a "maximum" benefit payable to any individual or family that caps the payout on SS benefits to somewhere currently around $2200 per month. That's it. That's all you get no matter HOW much you may have paid in thru their legalized extortion.

Is it any wonder that high earning individuals and others (like members of congress) avoid paying into SS any way they can? Yet, the system only works when those high earning individuals do pay in.

An "Entitlement???"

What am I missing here? Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only 30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500. If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working, you'd have $892,919.98. If you took out only 3% per year, you receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years, and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month. The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever had.

Entitlement my !!!!, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!! Congressional benefits, also known as free health care, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare - out of my pockets!

and they have the nerve to call my retirement entitlements !.....scroll down..............

Emergency Rooms for their general health care -At just one hospital the cost to tax payers totaled over 25 million a year!!!

Someone please tell me what is wrong with all the people that run this country!!

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and Turkey . And now Pakistan home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when its time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place?

We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.

AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without 'needed' meds, and mentally ill without treatment -etc,etc.

YET......................They have a 'Benefit' for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

SAD?

YEAH, OK, SO WHEN DO WE GET ANGRY ENOUGH to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?????